logo
FlamesNation has no direct affiliation to the Calgary Flames, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Recap: Goaltending battle breaks open in the third, Wranglers pick up narrow win
alt
Photo credit: Jonathan Kozub/Manitoba Moose
Paige Siewert
Dec 2, 2024, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 2, 2024, 00:15 EST
Comments
The Calgary Wranglers had a day to enjoy their 6-1 win against the Manitoba Moose on Friday before going right back into the series on Sunday. The scoring distance between these two in Sunday’s game was quite narrow with the Wranglers missing a couple of their top producers.
All the scoring action was isolated to the third period and the visiting Wranglers ended up picking up a 3-2 win.

Lineup notes

There were two large absences in this game consisting of Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier. It appears that impending transactions are coming between the Flames and Wranglers to cover Justin Kirkland’s lower-body injury, which he suffered on Friday in Columbus. Being two of the top three scorers on the Wranglers, no Duehr and Pelletier had its effect on the line combinations. 
Entering the lineup for the first time in his career was Joni Jurmo. The 2020 draft pick was acquired by the Flames via a trade last season and started the year with the Rapid City Rush before being recalled earlier this week.

Wranglers lines

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Parker Bell – Sam Morton – Lucas Ciona
Alex Gallant – David Silye
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot
Yan Kuznetsov – Joni Jurmo
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Hunter Brzustewicz
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

The Manitoba netminder who came in relief on Friday, started this game on Sunday, Thomas Milic. Devin Cooley was back in net, which made sense with it being a lighter week schedule-wise. With it not being a 3-4 game week and a day between games, he had ample time to recover for this game.
The Moose came out with a better start and made Cooley work for his saves early. They went the first four minutes with the majority of the zone time and even with a rush going the other way here and there, they maintained their effort, even through their first penalty kill. There were some high-danger shots that Cooley turned away and the Moose were showing signs of frustration with no goals to coincide with their level of effort.
At 17:29, a fight broke out between these teams with captain Clark Bishop on Calgary’s side and Mason Shaw for the Moose. Bishop was tripped up by Shaw in front of the Moose’s net then put up a hit on him along the boards once they made it to the end of the ice. By the end of their shift, they both dropped the gloves between the benches to sort out their frustrations.
That wrapped up the notable action of the first period and these two were scoreless after 20 minutes of play. Manitoba outshot Calgary 15-6 in the opening frame. The shots slowed a little in the second period but the penalty minutes shot right up.
The action that started this was a play that involved the Moose captain, Dominic Toninato. He elbowed Artem Grushnikov and while Grushnikov was being tended to the officials ruled it a five minute major and a game misconduct. While this was going on, Devin Cooley was having some equipment issues that almost took him out of the game temporarily. He was fixing his pads and had one fully off during this stoppage.
The officials decided to take their media timeout early and Waltteri Ignatjew was ready to go if needed. They got it sorted in time and Cooley took his place back between the pipes. The five minute power play for the Wranglers was slightly cut short at 9:04 when Jeremie Poirier was called for holding.
From this penalty the Moose and Wranglers went back and forth in penalties for the next five calls. Between all this chaos, neither side scored on their various advantages and disadvantages and the period ended the same way it started with a scoreless game. Shots through the middle frame were 8-7 Manitoba.
The first goal finally came in the third period when Sam Honzek cut off a clearing attempt and passed it up to Martin Frk, who beat Milic. Hunter Brzustewicz also assisted on this opening tally.
The Moose answered back a few minutes later when a shot deflected off a few players then popped up over the shoulder of Devin Cooley. It landed on the line and accidentally got knocked in by a Calgary skater. It officially went to C.J. Suess at 7:11 with assists going to Brad Lambert and Dmitry Kuzmin.
The Wranglers top line scored next at 8:18 with a back door set up from Dryden Hunt. Rory Kerins finished the play for his 15th goal of the season and William Stromgren picked up the secondary assist to the put Calgary back up in the lead.
The third goal in just over two minutes was scored by the Moose at 9:23. Dmitry Kuzmin evened things up for the home team with a bit of a bobbled rush but Kuzmin ended up with the puck on his stick and beat Cooley. Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Ben King assisted.
The Wranglers scored next with their game-winning goal from William Stromgren at 12:20. The same combination of Rory Kerins, Dryden Hunt and Stromgren made up the contributors to this tally when Rory Kerins and Dylan Anhorn were deep in the crease. Stromgren got the puck and scored on Milic. The traffic in the blue paint prevented the Moose netminder from making any sort of save but without any official review in this league, the goal was ruled good. In the NHL, the one would’ve likely been called back due to goaltender interference.
The Moose had their best push to tie things up again in the final five minutes and ended up pulling Milic at 17:13. They couldn’t find the back of the net again and the Wranglers picked up a 3-2 win. Shots favoured the Moose 37-22 and the Wranglers were outplayed a bit in this game but still found a way to win.
Rory Kerins earned the first star, Devin Cooley earned the second and Dmitry Kuzmin of the Moose picked up the third to close out this series.

Scoring stat summary

Hunter Brzustewicz – 1A
Rory Kerins – 1G, 1A
William Stromgren – 1G, 1A
Dryden Hunt – 2A
Martin Frk – 1G
Sam Honzek – 1A

Next up

This road trip out east wrapped up Calgary’s stretch of away games for the latter half of November. Now they’ll make their return to home ice with a series next weekend. They host the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday and have a bone to pick with this team, who are the only squad to have swept them this season so far. Friday’s game starts at 7:00 p.m. MT and Saturday’s starts at 6:00 p.m. MT.

News

Breaking News